Customer Reviews

Live Flesh

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Almodovar here shucks his tendency to blend campy sexuality and what he calls "screwball drama" for a strong work that instead fuses intense, real eroticism and the violence of a thriller into a powerful drama of fever-pitch emotionality.

Victor, born on a bus in a more typical Almodovar opening sequence featuring Penelope Cruz as his mother, is a loner and a man on the edge. He stalks Elena, a junkie-prostitute-drug dealer and forces his way inside her apartment. When two cops subsequently bust her for possession, they don't count on Victor, there with her, who pulls a gun on the cops in a scene that ends with one of them being paralyzed from a shot to the base of his spine.

Victor is nabbed and sent to prison. On his release, he discovers that Elena, whom he still lusts for, is now married to the paralyzed cop. And of course Victor cannot leave well enough alone.

It's the interplay of the second cop, the second cop's wife, Victor, and Elena that brings the emotional fluids here to a boil. The story development including surprising revelations establishes a momentum that results in a climax more than worthy of the preceding events, and that more than justifies the label of thriller for this film.

Lust, jealousy, murder, betrayal--all the juicy stuff that thrillers are made of--are, in the hands of a unique Spanish director, given a searing life of their own. It's truly a wonder to see this perfect mesh of out-of-control emotions, Spanish culture, and dazzling eroticism.

A brilliant film. Although All About My Mother is superb, it is more a return to Almodovar's sensibilities. Live Flesh is unique and is even unique for Almodovar. This makes it really special.

"Live Flesh" begins with Victor Plaza being born on a bus in Franco's Spain in 1970 and ends, twenty six years later, with... well, I wont spoil the ending; but typically with Almodovar, it is fitting and poetic. In between, we follow Victor on his journey into manhood, as he learns the hard way about disillusion, betrayal, love, lust, life, death, and tragedy.

As a young man, Victor believes that a one-off sexual encounter with a beautiful Italian junkie is something more than it is, and pesters her to such an extent that she draws a gun on him in order to get him to leave. A struggle ensues. The gun accidentally goes off, and although noone is hurt, it brings the unwelcome attention of two policemen. Another struggle ensues. Another shot is fired. One of the policemen is paralysed from the waist down. From then on, all four of their lives become tragically entwined; with deception and misunderstanding leading towards bitterness and envy. Inevitably, the lies are stripped away, unwanted truths are revealed, and all the various dilemmas are resolved amidst a scene of emotional and actual carnage.

This must sound like heady stuff, almost melodramatic? It is. This is Almodovar, after all. There is the usual complex plotting that reveals the strains that pull apart and bring together relationships while the emotional lives of the characters are laid bare. There is the relentless drive to resolve the emotional dilemmas while avoiding sentimentality. In short, there are all the usual touches that one expects from Almodovar, including the wonderful acting from the cast. Wonderful! A film that will draw you back again and again and again.

I've seen all of Aldomovar's films, and I'd have to put this one right behind "All About My Mother." It has the typical Aldomovar intersecting characters & some of his trademark campiness, but the polish and professionalism that burst out in "All About My Mother" really started in "Live Flesh," his work prior to that Oscar-winning breakthrough.

Not mentioned in any of the other reviews here is the reason I rented the film: a chance to see Javier Bardem before his triumph as Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls." That alone is worth your checking out this movie. Watching Live Flesh," you gain even more respect for his depiction of Arenas. He demonstrates amazing range. There is a gaping chasm between these two characters. Just incredible acting.

[Trivia note: You can check out one of Bardem's first film appearances in an earlier Aldomovar picture called "High Heels." He's on screen for no more than seven seconds as a TV stage technician.]

By now all movie buffs have been exposed to the singular genius of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and the numerous solid films he has placed before his admiring public. Though generally recognized as the maestro of zany, over the edge, ludicrous comedies, his later works have included such tender and truly gripping films as 'Talk to Her' and 'All About My Mother' and it is into this vein that LIVE FLESH falls.

The story is just as surreal as any he has filmed and certainly the quality of the filming, direction and acting is on a par with the best of his work, but LIVE FLESH deals with some fairly grim issues that in the hands of other directors might have become either ruinous parodies of the old films from the 1940s or as bloody boring and tired retreads. Herein lies Almodovar's magic.

Beginning in 1970 Franco's Madrid, a prostitute (Penelope Cruz) goes into labor and with the aid of what appears to be a transvestite fellow hooker gives birth to a son Victor (later played by Liberto Rabal) - on a bus! Flash forward to the 1990s and Victor is caught in a drug deal by two policemen David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (Jose Sancho). In the ruckus David is shot in the spine resulting in paraplegia. Victor is imprisoned, David becomes a national hero as a paraplegic basketball player married to Clara who runs an orphanage and though she loves David, her sexual needs are only minimally met by David. Sancho has become an alcoholic macho cop.

When Victor is released form prison he pledges revenge on David and Sancho, falls under the influence of Clara from whom he learns his role as a sexual male and begins an affair with her, and when eventually David discovers Clara's 'betrayal' he is able to forgive for the sake of his love for his wife's plight at living with a paraplegic. Victor progresses toward being the decent human being capable of reform and the film closes in the circular manner of most of Almodovar's films: Clara is giving birth to Victor's son 'in transit' in 1996!

The actual story is, of course, much more convoluted and tightly profound than this too brief summary, but you must see the process by watching the film to garner all the beauty that is Almodovar's gift for story telling. Every member of the cast is superb and the action moves at such a fast pace, with just the right amount of sensual sexual encounters to keep in line with Almodovar's style, that this film seems very short. The vivid color palette and the completely appropriate musical score are also trademarks of this gifted director. Highly recommended! Grady Harp, March 05

Pedro Almodovar's "Live Flesh" is a film noir full of style, exhilaration, richness and excellent erotic storytelling. Almodovar, the best director from Spain since the great Luis Bunuel, shows here a complexity in filmmaking few directors achieve. His screenplay here is exquisitly detailed in story and situations. The story by itself keeps us gripped and interested. The way the story unfolds has a lot of energy and Almodovar surprises us with revelations at every corner. To look at "Live Flesh" is to look at a great example of good foreign cinema, which sometimes vastly surpasses American cinema. This is great film noir.

This was the first Almodovar movie in which he used a higher picture quality, giving it a more hollywood look, ON THE SURFACE, but this is not hollywood-esque by any means other than that. The charcters are very Almodovar, in that most of them have serious issues. The Almodovar humor, like the grandma cutting the umbilical cord with her teeth, is there as well.

The story has to do with Victor, a young, naive pizza delivery boy who has a quick fling with a drugged out daughter of an Italian diplomat. He eventually finds her, and gets involved in a scuffle with her in her apartment, causing some neighbors to call over the police. The police confront the couple, a shot ends up being fired, and so commences our bizarre, black comedy, tragic love story. The acting is great, great script, beautifully shot, it really is an excellent film.

It is great to see legends like Pedro Almodovar continuing to get better and better. His last three have just been phenomanal, "All about my mother", "Live Flesh" and "Talk to her", can'd wait for his next release, "Bad Education" featuring Gael Garcia Bernal.

Odd little film (even for Almodovar) that deals with the consequences faced by a prostitute's son when he shoots and paralyzes a police officer during a fight with a drug dealer...who turns out to be the cop's wife! Only Pedro Almodovar could have directed this strange little tale, adapted from Ruth Rendell's equally strange novel. It starts slowly, taking an almost aloof approach to the characters and situations, but once the plot swings into action, emotions and personalities (an Almodovar specialty) take center stage, and the film's tone begins to veer wildly from comedy to drama to tragedy to irony. Such a hodgepodge of moods shouldn't mesh, and in the hands of most other directors, this would be an incoherent mess. But Almodovar makes it work with strong characters and a remarkable sense of timing, both comedic and dramatic (especially near the end). Great performances (especially by Liberto Rabal, Javier Bardem, and the stunning Francesca Neri) are also a plus, and Almodovar was wise to pepper his film with strong personalities who make the emotional content of the film more believable, and certainly more palatable, especially when the viewer is subjected to sometimes wild swings in the film's tone. On a par with Almodovar's best works, such as "Talk to Her" and "Woman on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown."

British crime writer Ruth Rendell gets credit for the original story of this film. But it's hard to picture the kind of darkly original psychological study that director Pedro Almodovar started with because his stamp is all over this film - that unmistakable mix of melodrama, steamy scenes of passion, and quirky comedy. Beefy Javier Bardem comes on strong here as the Russell Crowe of Spanish cinema, graduating from smoothly suited cop to sweaty, muscular disabled basketball player in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, his apparent nemesis is a young man who has served time for the shooting that crippled him and is now out of prison and settling old scores, which involves romancing two strategically selected married women. (Don't want to give too much away here.) This being an Almodovar film, the young man is handsome and sweetly charming. Even his schemes, when we learn them, are more poignant than ill-willed.

This is Almodovar's spin on film noir. Not as brilliant as "Talk to Her" and "All About My Mother," but definitely worth a watch.

What's special about Almodovar films is that he is able to explore the naked-ness of humanity creating this "Othello"-esque scenario wherein people are exposed as people -- human enough to feel, be hurt and heal.

Almodovar starts off with a simplistic cliché scenario, which would slowly unravel to become a complex story of human relationships taking risks on impulsive choices. To condense an Almodovar plot would be futile. It isn't because I'm lazy but because if one would attempt to do so, it would be a risk in making the film gratuitous and simplified when it isn't. You need to look at every part of the shot to see the details he is giving to the piece. Look at the sexual scenes; the balance he achieves: it's not so strong, but not soft either. It's subtle. His way of directing the actors is amazing. He writes the movie, and knows it more than anyone, so you know he is there to tell the cast what to do, and help them obtain their amazing performances. It's a visual style with life of its own.

I said it. There's cruelty and honesty at the same time. There's passion. There's betrayal, lies, sex. You see it in the characters, in their words. For example- When David arrives home and sees his wife Elena in bed, and starts to touch her; she doesn't like it. "What's the matter?" he asks. "It hurts", Elena answers. "Why?" he says. And with a face that involves everything I'm talking about, she looks at him: "Because I've been having sex all night"

I didn't really have a specific favorite scene because each act builds up on each other. The present scene would portray the consequence of the previous scene. This is a film of cause and effect. Unfortunately, the choices of the characters tend to lean towards the romantic but when they finally decide to be rational, the result would tend to lead to more complications. Complications that in the end allows each character to collide with one another.

What Almodovar came to do was to simply entertain his audience. And he does. He fills time with entertaining plot twists, interesting character developments and enough metaphors to keep people like I glued to the screen.

This movie has one of the most astounding openings, grabs your attention and keeps it from when the main character is born. I have been watching more foreign films for something a little different. This is from Madrid, Spain with nice yellow subtitles. I didn't have any trouble following the story, even if you don't read every word. It also has some beautiful Spanish music. After being sent to prison because of a woman, Victor decides to become the greatest lover in the world. There are many plot twists which I would not want to spoil for you. The actors and actresses are great, makes it all believable. It is such a twisted tale of 2 policement and 1 Victor. It also deals with abuse. I enjoyed this movie the first time I watched it and many times afterwards. "We are two teardrops in a song!"